The U.S. Bureau of Standards states that oil does not wear out mechanically. However, motor oil loses its ability to effectively perform its task in an engine's environment due to two main contributing factors; degradation and contamination.
Degradation refers to the destructive chemical changes which occur in a lubricating oil when it is exposed to the operating environment of an internal combustion engine. The results are: oxidation, nitration, loss of additive effectiveness, and an adverse change in viscosity.
Contamination refers to outside substances that have entered into the oil that do not belong there. They are: fuel, soot, water, coolant, solid particles of dirt, and wear metals. Of these particulate contaminants, the microscopic particles in the 5 through 1 micron range have been borne out to cause 50% of the engine wear. They act as lapping agents that get into the regions of critical tolerances and grind the moving parts down.
In almost all operating environments, several of these unwanted substances can be found simultaneously. Their effects and combination of effects vary, but their presence does mean the inevitable inability of the oil to perform its multi-faceted tasks leading to almost-certain motor damage if left unchecked.
The particulate contaminants are meant to be removed by the oil filter. However, the degree of contaminent removal greatly depends upon the quality of the filter (its micron rating); how many filters are employed; and how they are employed in the system.
Due to critical design constraints, such as the filter being placed in direct series with the flow of oil, as in the case of full flow filters, the filter is only able to do a cursory job of filtration. Its' ability to hold large amounts of particulate contaminants is limited and the side of the contaminants being trapped is calculated so as not to plug the filter. The filter's ability to hold fuel, water, coolant, and soot that gets into the system is almost non-existent. Hence, the system, as it presently exists, taxes even the most sophisticated oils and their additive packages from the standpoint of contamination.
One of the objects of this invention, therefore, is to provide a mechanical contaminant filter that has the highest possible degree of filtration; capable of trapping the most minute particulates that could cause abrasive damage to the engine.
In the case of degradation, the oils additive package, that is invariably included in all detergent motor oils--plays a major role in the critical job of keeping in check the forces of oxidation, nitration, and viscosity breakdown. The additive package is also responsible for holding in suspension some of the outside contaminants that have entered the system that the oil filter is unable to trap and hold. This is done by the various constituents of the additive package that are able to surround and hold these unwanted by-products and contaminants in suspension and shield the moving parts of the motor from their damaging effects until the oil filter can be changed, and the oil drained and replaced with new detergent notor oils.
This additive constituent is found in various diluted strengths of approximately 4 to 6% by volume in almost every detergent motor oil. A typical, almost-universal, motor oil additive pachage would contain approximately 50% of an ashless dispersant; 15% of alkyl zink dithiophosphate; and 35% of metalic detergents, by volume.
It should be noted, here, that there are innumerable additives to oils, available at all automotive supply stores, that guaranty almost as many cures to oils and engines, but these are essentially supplements for the improvement of the viscosity of the oil that is lost due to chemical dilution of the oils, However, there are no additives, available on the retail market, that are actually intended for, or able to compensate for, the chemical changes in the oil, or for the reconstituting of the oil for that purpose.
It is therefore, another, and the primary, object of this invention to provide a filter that can systematically introduce the specific chemicals to the oil that can restore, as much as possible, the depleted additive-package chemicals of the oil, so as to minimize the potential damage to the engine by the build-up of destructive chemicals and contaminants.
This filter would be treated with a chemical solution or additive package, that would include as much as possible, the specific chemicals of the very-same commercially-available packages, that were put into the base oils at the blenders. However, the amounts of the specific chemicals will be chosen to compensate for those of the original additive package, to the extent that they will have been exhausted by natural depletion during engine use.
This solution can be applied to any and all types of oil filtration media, and is compatible with all oil filters, whether primary or full flow, axial or radial flow, spin-on or cartridge types, and in the case of heavy duty engines, such as diesels, to any and all configurations of secondary or bypass filters. The application of this solution should be done at the factory by the oil filters manufacturer to insure quality control and to insure that the strength of the solution added to each filter would be commensurate with a specific vehicles oil sump capacity, and its projected use. Degradation of the oil would, of course, be a function of the type of engine and its use.
This solution would leach out into the oil as the system called for its presence. Also the fact that the solution would be impregnated in the filters media would aid in the absorption of contaminants and improve the oil filter's ability to aid in the filtration process, because today's oil additives work as liquid filters in the oil.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a replaceable, disposable filter cartridge that will leach a measured portion of necessary additives into the lubricating system during the life of the cartirdge to reconstitute the chemical structure of the oil to continue compensating for the build up of acids, and other chemicals, in the lubricating system that would, eventually, damage the engine.